Solid Waste Management In Phnom Penh (SWM)
SWM Master Plan (under construction)
Background of dang Kor New Disposal Site Development Project
The Municipality of Phnom Penh (MPP) is the capital of Cambodia having a population of 1.2 million in 2003 (estimated)* and an area of 374 km2. Municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in the MPP has been under the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Works and Transport (DPWT). The MSWM services had been provided by the municipal cleansing section under DPWT until June 1994. Since then due to the extremely limited capability of MSWM, the MPP entrusted its MSWM service to mainly private contractors with franchise agreement, which allows the monopoly service. However, the service provider has been changed six times due to mainly financial difficulty.
The MPP established Phnom Penh Waste Management Authority (PPWM) by merging the Cleansing Authority of Phnom Penh (CAP) and the Wastewater Authority of Phnom Penh (WAP) in 2001. The monopoly situation has been weakened when PPWM commenced waste collection service at the NIP area and also took over operation of the Stung Mean Chey disposal site (SMCDS). The contract made between MPP and the private company (CINTRI), however, limits PPWM collection service area to only the NIP area, which is less than 2% of the MPP population.
Waste collection has generally improved in Phnom Penh by the current private company. However, many areas of the city are still without adequate waste collection service and many tons of wastes are dumped into rivers and ponds, burned or left uncollected to be scattered by animals, block drains and create unsanitary conditions. Waste collection is especially weak in outlaying areas and in many of the cities unplanned settlements that are home for thousands of the cities poorest families.
The SMCDS is the only disposal site in the MPP where unregulated landfill operation has continued for 38 years, since 1965. Since the municipality land plot is very limited (only 6.8 ha) and waste is piled up to a height of more than 5 m on average, the landfill operation is getting more and more difficult. The remaining service life of the landfill is very little within the municipal land (less than two years) and residential area is approaching less than 100 m away from the site due to rapid urbanization. The construction of a new disposal site is urgently needed. The site is a typical open dump, where more than 500 waste pickers (WPs) regularly are working without any rules and control, posing seriously negative impacts on the surrounding environment, such as air pollution by smoke caused by fire, waste scattering, odor, surface & underground water contamination, etc.
In order to overcome the aforementioned difficulties with MSWM in the MPP, a comprehensive plan of countermeasures including both soft and hard components is required.
With such understanding, the Government of Japan dispatched a short-term SWM expert twice, in October 2000 and in June 2001, to assess the current situation as requested by the Government of Cambodia (GOC).
GOC requested the Government of Japan to carry out a development study in 2000. In response to this request, JICAfs preliminary study team was sent to Cambodia and the Scope of Work (S/W) was signed by both governments on 24 October 2002. Subsequently, JICA selected Kokusai Kogyo Co., Ltd. as the consultant to conduct this study.
According to the S/W signed on 24 October 2002 , the Study commenced in February 2003, scheduled to be carried out over a 16-month period according to the S/W. The study period was divided into two phases. The study team prepared the master plan (hereinafter referred to as gM/Ph) in Phase 1 based on the understanding of present SWM and the forecast of future waste generation, etc. In Phase 2, the study team conducted a feasibility study (hereinafter referred to as gF/Sh) on the priority projects selected in the master plan, which were the Dang Kor disposal site development project, the waste collection service expansion project and SMC disposal site closure project. In addition to these studies, the study team conducted several pilot projects, including the improvement of SMC disposal site, improvement of the collection system, development and promotion of the urban waste compost market, and development of a data management system for SWM.
Regarding the new disposal site development project, MPP held a public hearing twice in the second phase based on the results of the preliminary design and EIA study prepared by the study team, considering the limited remaining capacity of the SMCDS and promoting the project. Although MPP started to acquire the land according to the development plan prepared by the study team, the proposed area was not secured because of a sudden soaring of land prices along national route 303. It might be due to the fact that the proposed area was identified through the public hearing, and the cost for land acquisition exceeded the budget authorized by the central government. Therefore, MPP changed the plan and acquired 20 ha of land about 800m to the west of national route 303, adjacent to the 11 ha of land MPP had already acquired, securing 31.4 ha of land in all. Consequently, the development plan should be amended according to the land acquired.
Although CINTRI, which was a private service provider, had the right to provide collection services to the whole city according to the contract agreement signed between MPP and CINTRI, the master plan prepared in the first phase of the study proposed that the MPP/PPWM would provide the waste collection service to the three semi-urbanized Khans and CINTRI to the four urban Khans. However, the proposed area demarcation was not agreed by CINTRI. Therefore, the master plan and the F/S on waste collection should be modified based on a mutual agreement between MPP and CINTRI.
Furthermore, the lack of experience and weak organization of the Phnom Penh Waste Management Authority (herein after referred to as PPWM) and the Department of Environment (hereinafter referred to as gDOEh) of MPP were recognized through the study. It was reconfirmed that the capacity development of PPWM and DOE as the executing agencies of SWM would be necessary.
Accordingly, on February 4, 2004 MPP requested JICA to expand the study period, aiming to revise the plan of new disposal site development and expansion of the waste collection service, strengthen the capacity of PPWM and disseminate the results of the study. JICA approved this request and decided to expand the study period until March 2005. Therefore, the third phase of the study was conducted to revise the M/S and F/S and develop the capacity of PPWM through continuation of the pilot project.
In accordance with the change of the site, the study team reviewed the preliminary design of the new disposal site development project, considering the comments of the Ministry of Environment (MOE) on the draft EIA report. The EIA report was approved by the MOE on July 15, 2004 when the third public hearing was held. It should be noted that the preliminary design of the new disposal site was done based on the assumption that the soil condition was almost the same as the results of the geological survey conducted in the second phase of the study. This is because the project site is adjacent to the former site and they had the same geographical features. An additional geological survey was to be done in the detailed design stage.
Although MPP, requesting the area be as wide as possible, and CINTRI, arguing that the PPWM area is four Sangkats (scenario 1 and see The figure below), have continued the negotiations, they could not reach an agreement on the area demarcation for the waste collection service as of the beginning of December 2004 (see Chapter 3.4.3 Public-Private Partnership). Under such circumstances, MPP pointed out that the scale of the area PPWM would cover should be more than one district (Khan) to make the M/P practical to the study team and requested to revise the M/P based on this concept. Therefore, the study team revised the M/P based on scenario 2 and the F/S with scenario 1 and 2.
The study team conducted the pilot projects, which included a continuation of the improvement of SMC disposal site, expansion of the waste collection service to the four Sangkats (scenario 1) and education campaign, to strengthen the capacity of PPWM and DOE. In addition to these pilot projects, the study team conducted a group training workshop for the staff of SWM of the provincial cities so that the provincial cities in Cambodia would be able to formulate their own M/P respectively based on the understanding of the results of the study.
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| Scenario 1 4 Sangkats : Toul Sangke, Chroy Changvar, Phnom Penh Thmey,Chha Ampov 1 Total population : 105,112 in 2007 (7.7% in total |
Scenario 2 Khan Russey Keo (except Sangkat Tuek Thla ) and Chuba Ampov 1 Total population : 252,021 in 2007 (18.4% in total ) |
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| Scenario 3 3 Rural Khans ( except Sangkat Tuek Thla, Stung Mean Chey , Boeung Tumpun ) Poputation : 493/614 in 2007 (36.0% in total) |
Scenario 4 3 Khans Population : 692.643 in 2007 (50.5% in total ) |
1.3. Objectives and Main Scope of the Study
1 To formulate a master plan (M/P) of SWM for the MPP with a target year of 2015.
2. To carry out a feasibility study for the selected priority project(s).
3. To transfer technology to the Cambodian counterpart (C/P) through the implementation of the study.
The study area is the municipality of Phnom Penh (population: 1.20 million, area: 374 km2).
Municipal waste, septage (sludge collected from septic tanks), industrial waste and medical waste are to be studied. Municipal waste means combustible waste, incombustible waste and bulky waste generated in the MPP, and can be divided into five categories by generation source, namely household waste, commercial waste, institutional waste, market waste and street weeping waste.
The team will study the amount and types of septage, industrial waste and medical waste that are disposed of at the final disposal site. The team will not fully consider waste of these three categories, but clarify its current conditions, point out issues to be resolved, and propose possible solutions.
Based on the S/W and the change of the study schedule as mentioned above, the study commenced in February 2003 and the field study will be completed in January 2005.
The study was implemented in the following three phases as shown in the Figure below:
Phase 1 F February 2003 - August 2003
A study on current conditions of solid waste management and formulation of a master plan
Phase 2 F September 2003 - March 2004
A feasibility study for the priority projects
Phase 3 F May 2004 - March 2005
Review of the M/P and the feasibility study, capacity development through continuation of the pilot projects
The study had commenced in the beginning of February 2003 and will be finished 16 months after. The study schedule is shown below.
* The Study on the Transport Master Plan of the Phnom Penh Metropolitan Area in the Kingdom of Cambodia, November, 2001 by JICA